When it comes to meat, America is firmly committed to beef and chicken. (With some pork thrown in, mostly in the form of ham and bacon.) But in many other countries, the meat of choice comes from smaller herd animals like lamb and goat. “Mutton” is sheep meat — that is, older lambs. Not only [...]
One of the easiest ways to make soup is the blender method: place all your ingredients in a blender, press “on,” and let the ingredients puree themselves into creamy soupiness. It’s a common technique for chilled soups, but if you like, you can pour the soup into a pot and heat it through if you’d [...]
I know that beef and chicken are America’s favorite meats — and I like the occasional steak or wing, too — but I think lamb and pork are where it’s at. Especially pastured lamb and pork. My recent one-pound purchase of ground pork from my farmer plus the onslaught of cold weather prompted me to [...]
With the days so dang hot, odds are you don’t want to fire up all of your burners to make dinner. You also might be inclined to lighter, satisfying-without-making-you-feel-stuffed fare. Maybe you even have some veggies growing rampant in your garden. What does all this add up to? No-cook soups. Just toss everything in a [...]
I’ve never been much of a beef fan — I’ll take the surf over the turf any day — but ever since I first went to Olga’s as a kid and had the Original Olga, I’ve been crazy about lamb. (I’d love to try mutton, but I guess I’ll have to wait until I’m in [...]
It’s summer, it’s hot (since when was Detroit in the middle of the Sahara?), and I’m sure I’m not the only one who doesn’t want to spend much time over a hot stove right now. Hence, this soup! Although it involves a bit of simmering time, the heat is on low and you don’t have [...]
Continue reading about Cool Moroccan Flavors to Spice Up Your Summer
Assuming you have a sizable and sharp knife (an 8″ chef’s knife is ideal), winter squash is a great wintertime ingredient: it’s plentiful, versatile, and inexpensive. You can roast it and eat straight out of the skin, or you can simmer cut-up chunks of it in water or broth and then drain it and mash [...]
Continue reading about Making Winter Velvet Out of Winter Squash
Like Spanish tapas, the Arabic tradition of mezze involves small dishes that are hugely flavorful. Most are very simple to prepare — in fact, there are plenty of single-ingredient mezze, like the olives pictured here. There are also two- and three-ingredient small dishes that just involve a bit of spice or oil added to the [...]
Continue reading about You Can’t Go Wrong with Roasted Eggplant
I just love northern African cuisine — it’s fragrant and nuanced, yet easy to prepare and dependent on inexpensive staples like rice, lentils, and legumes. You may need to purchase a few spices to make your dishes more authentic, but spices last for six months to a year if you store them in a cool [...]
Holidays = parties = dips. And bringing along a classic dip that you know everyone will like is a sure-fire bet. It’s also fun to add a little something extra to that kind of dip, something that will be just different enough to make people ask you for your recipe. It occurred to me that [...]
